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Decolonizing Social Entrepreneurship & Corporate Social Responsibility BENJAMIN DANIELS
W
ithin the reality of a capitalistic society founded on colonialism, how do we begin to decolonize and implement sustainable practice? New modes of interpreting responsible enterprise are a start, but in order to more fully ideate where we can go, we must first acknowledge the past and hold ourselves accountable to a more ethical future. First, it is important to differentiate the definitions of social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility. Social entrepreneurship as a well-known business practice was mainstreamed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank. The bank provided Bangladeshi citizens of low socioeconomic status with microloans to help provide small
amounts of capital that could go a long way for local entrepreneurs.The microloan model worked, providing a way out of poverty for poor citizens and creating a system where loan repayment was extraordinarily high. Yunus showed that it was possible for a for-profit entity to both make money and give back to society. Social entrepreneurship became a more visible field, and is now defined as using private sector approaches to combat social and environmental issues. As for corporate social responsibility (CSR), the historical roots of this practice extend back to the 1950s, as society grappled with the immense power of corporations, and whether they were obligated to give back to their communities. Howard Bowen, considered the father of CSR,
